Ferrycountry for good
Let us think geopolitically for a while. Hungarian soul, as we call it, is suffering from deeply rooted, nationwide self-pity. The Trianon Treaty of 1920 that ended World War I, indeed caused a justified upset, since the loss of territory and population significantly determined the geopolitical potentials of the country.
Young kids, attending kindergarden already have a vague idea of the "common national tragedy", way before they learn where babies come from, therefore it is not surprising, why we regularly stumble upon political statements clinging into the vague narrative of "reconciliation with our national tragedy". The drastically restructured thinking of the Hungarian people and the country's brief history since 1920 fundamentally determines the way our always often demagogue political forces try to picture Hungary as a key player in the "colossal clash of titans", where Hungary can act as a Ferry Nation between two major shores.
In 1989, Soviets left the country, we changed the constitution and declared the Republic of Hungary for the third time. In 1990, we held our first democratic elections (yes, we did not vote with pencils and there were actually more than one candidate!). In 1999, remembering "not to trust those damn Ruskies", we joined NATO. In 2004, we joined the European Union. From a realist point of view (but from many others as well) the position of the Hungarian prime minister is easy peasy: wait until the Germans, the Americans and eventually the rest decide on a key issue, then you join the chorus, because being part of a strong club is better than being the underdog. Everyone learned it from school.
Viktor Orbán, having realized that his two thirds majority in the parliament is not an ultimate weapon - and there are actual international barriers and domestic concepts of checks and balances - he found himself in an area, where the budgetary requirements set by the IMF, and the legal bindings emphasized by the EU seriously restricted the elaboration of his envisioned "System of National Cooperation". His quite unclear (and almost unilaterally promoted by Orbán himself) concepts of the "Opening to the East" and "Illiberal Democracy" seriously diverged the trajectory of the country from the path, that was somewhat determined, based on the events since 1989. Orbán has already openly confronted the United States, and shifted the extremely delicate Hungarian-German principle-based relations into rigid pragmatism. Due to his Eastern orientations, he decided to trust Putin's Russia to expand Hungary's only nuclear power plant (the exact budget and the details of the contract are considered as top secret information, even though we are talking about 10-12 billion EUR) relying on almost unconditional Russian loan, and renew the gas supply contract. Have I mentioned, that there is a gruesome violation of probably every document on international peace going on in Ukraine?
Source: Origo.hu
In that heatened situation, Orbán decided to host the Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin, President of Russia in February, both within just two weeks, to demostrate his genious tightrope walker abilities. The result, apart from having the entire city closed down for two days? Nothing. Merkel's visit reinforced the cool, forward-thinking image of her, not underlining anything negative or positive about Orbán. Putin, on the other hand, found himself the only puppet within the EU and the NATO, that was willing to welcome him on a bilateral meeting, which he has been craving for almost a year, since the eruption of the outrageous involvement of Russia in the Ukrainian turmoil.
Alas, Mr. Ferry did it again.
18 February, 2015